Walmart lets approved AI agents shop for customers through new gateway

Walmart is giving approved AI agents a direct route to search its inventory and buy for customers. The retailer launched Agent Gateway on October 21, pairing the shopping connection with plans for separate agent profiles and purchase controls in November. Customers will be able to approve individual transactions or authorize spending within a limit.

The launch connects an agent to Walmart through Model Context Protocol, or MCP—a way for AI software to use outside data and tools. Agent Gateway is Walmart’s server for those connections. It supports both finding products in the online inventory and making purchases on the customer’s behalf, TechCrunch reported.

Walmart says the gateway can help shoppers find their usual brands or items without handing personal information or purchase history directly to the agent. That is a claim about how the shopping connection handles customer information, rather than a requirement for customers to give the assistant their shopping records.

The company says its agent-shopping technology will support both Walmart and Sam’s Club. Agent support is available to anyone with a Walmart account; shoppers do not need a Walmart+ membership. The account requirement is separate from the approval an agent needs to connect through the gateway.

November brings a separate identity for each agent

Agent Profiles, scheduled to roll out in November, will distinguish purchases made by an assistant from those made directly by the customer. Each agent a shopper authorizes will have a dedicated profile inside the customer’s account, allowing its purchases to be viewed separately rather than mixed indistinguishably with the shopper’s own activity.

Walmart says a profile will be created the first time a customer uses a particular agent through Agent Gateway. The shopper will authorize it, link it to their Walmart account, and choose controls or spending limits. Customers will also be able to delete an Agent Profile at any time.

The purchase controls offer two ways to decide how much authority to delegate:

• Require approval for every transaction, keeping the decision to complete each purchase with the customer.
• Authorize transactions within a customer-set spending limit, giving the agent permission to buy within that financial boundary.

Walmart compares the arrangement to adding an authorized user to a credit card: that user’s transactions are identified, and their spending can be capped. Here, the separate profile is intended to make clear which assistant acted, while the customer chooses how its purchases are approved.

Permission to buy is not permission to access everything

Alongside the connection and account features, Walmart is introducing terms governing how AI agents may operate on its site. The rules say agents cannot take actions beyond the shopper’s intent, access customer payment information, or obtain information they do not need for the task. Authorization to transact does not give an agent unrestricted access.

Walmart says agents that fail to comply will be blocked from its site. The gateway has launched, but the customer-facing profiles and purchase controls are still scheduled for next month. The announcement therefore separates the new shopping connection from the forthcoming tools customers will use to identify and constrain each agent.